Autism and Classical Myth: Emancipatory and reflective pedagogies... What I'll be doing to open up a world in Cambridge next month

Why classical myth and autism?

Why classical myth and autism?

The idea for this project started to take shape at a meeting in 2008 with a special needs teacher, who mentioned that, in her experience and those of her colleagues, autistic children often enjoy classical myth. I began to wonder why this might be the case, and whether – as a classicist who researches, and loves, classical myth – there was anything I could contribute. I started this blog to report on my progress which was often sporadic until the launch of the Warsaw-based European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood (2016-22) to trace the role of classics in children’s culture.

My key contribution to the project is an exploration of classics in autistic children’s culture, above all by producing myth-themed activities for autistic children. This blog shares my progress, often along Herculean paths, including to a book of lessons for autistic children focusing on the Choice of Hercules between two very different paths in life. The image above, illustrating the homepage of this blog, is one of the drawings by Steve K. Simons, the book's illustrator, of a chimneypiece panel in a neoclassical villa at Roehampton in South West London. The lessons centre on this panel.

Monday 13 March 2023

Emancipatory and reflective pedagogies... What I'll be doing to open up a world in Cambridge next month

When I attend any conference I am speaking at I always prefer to be on early - as early as possibly and ideally right at the start to kick things off. That leaves me able not just to enjoy the event but listen to the other speakers. For some reason, however, topics I present on tend to fall late on in conference programmes.

I remember this happening at the last Classical Association conference I attended in person.* That was in Glasgow in 2008, where I took part in a panel on classics and student employability in the final slot, right before lunch on the last day. And it will be happening this year as well - at the Classical Association conference in Cambridge next month.

Of the 82 panels over several days, I shall be in panel 82, starting after the final lunch and ending after most sessions will have finished and after most people will have left.

But what a panel..! Here it is, on a poster of events of interest to school teachers:

And here is the order or play:

After Evelien Bracke will have spoken about her work pioneering the teaching of ancient languages to primary school students, I will talk about how I am involved in 'opening up a world' - the world being one where classics and autism connect via myth. I shall be talking Hercules, and, hopefully, premiering an animation of Hercules choosing by Steve Simons.

Once I'm done, I shall be able to enjoy the remaining papers, which include presentations on classics in Nigeria and on work linked, like my own, with the Our Mythical Childhood project.

I'll share the abstract for my talk soon and in upcoming posts I'm aiming to share other things I'm currently up to...

*Not that I've been exactly absent from Classical Association conferences down the years... I've contributed to several panels in absentia, and I coordinated a video for last year's panel at the Swansea CA. What's more I was in London, in person, for the joint CA/FIEC conference in 2019. At both the Swansea and London events my contributions were linked with autism and classical myth. I blogged on what I did at FIEC: here, here, here and here. And I blogged on what I did for the Swansea CA here.